Print

Mail

wiki links

Bonds breaks hitless streak in rout of Astros

The San Francisco Giants' Barry Bonds is escorted by a police officer as he comes off the field while spectators hold up protest signs behind him during the Giants' baseball game against the Houston Astros in Houston, Texas, on Monday. PHOTO: AP

National League

Barry Bonds said any kind of hit will do.

Then the San Francisco slugger made good on that statement, lining an RBI double to right in the third inning of the Giants' 10-1 victory over the Houston Astros on Monday night for his first hit in six games.

Yet Bonds' streak without a home run reached seven games and he remained stuck at 713 in the tiny section of Texas listing 713 as its area code. He remained one homer shy of tying Babe Ruth for second place on the career list.

On a warm night at hitter-friendly Minute Maid Park, where the thermometer read 76 degrees at first pitch, Bonds watched teammate Pedro Feliz hit his fourth career grand slam and Randy Winn lead off the game with his fourth homer of the year.

Bonds went 1-for-3 with the double, a walk, a called strikeout and a popup before Jason Ellison replaced him in left field in the seventh. Mike Matheny drove in two runs and Feliz matched his career high with five RBIs for the Giants a day after they lost a weekend series to the rival Los Angeles Dodgers.

Bonds scored in the Giants' five-run third, when Feliz hit the first pitch he saw off the brick facade in left field for his team-leading seventh homer. The Giants made for an easy night on fill-in starter Brad Hennessey (3-1), who pitched well in place of struggling rookie Matt Cain.

Taylor Buchholz (2-3), who retired Bonds twice last month in his only appearance against the seven-time NL MVP, avoided becoming the 420th pitcher to give up a homer to the slugger.

Braves 11, Marlins 8

At Atlanta, Brian McCann homered and had a career-high five RBIs, Andruw Jones drove in four runs and the Braves rallied from a 5-0 deficit to beat Florida.

The Marlins lost despite getting six RBIs from Mike Jacobs, ruining a modest two-game winning streak that equaled the best run of a dismal season.

Atlanta stormed ahead with six runs in the sixth, Florida rallied to tie it at 8 and the Braves won it with three more runs in the seventh. Amazingly, they scored all 11 runs with two-out hits.

The Braves tied their season high with 18 hits. Five Florida hurlers combined to throw a staggering 206 pitches.

In a fitting footnote to a wild game, Oscar Villareal (5-0) picked up the win despite giving up a three-run homer to Jacobs in the seventh. Chris Reitsma worked a scoreless ninth for his seventh save in nine chances.

Randy Messenger (0-2) took the loss, giving up a leadoff double to Adam LaRoche in the seventh.

Dodgers 5, Rockies 4

At Denver, Nomar Garciaparra singled home the go-ahead run in the seventh and Brett Tomko won for the first time at Coors Field.

Garciaparra extended his hitting streak to 10 games with an RBI single off rookie Ramon Ramirez, who hadn't given up a run in his first 15 1-3 innings covering 11 appearances but allowed three runs in just 1-3 of an inning.

Ramirez (2-1) replaced starter Josh Fogg to start the seventh and issued a leadoff walk to Tomko. Rafael Furcal followed with a single and one out later, Garciaparra singled to right and Tomko scored to break a 2-all tie when Hawpe's throw pulled Danny Ardoin off the plate just enough to miss the tag.

Ray King came in and surrendered a two-run double to J.D. Drew that made it 5-2.

Tomko (5-1) allowed three runs, two earned, on five hits and one walk in seven innings.

Diamondbacks 6, Padres 5, 10 innings

At Phoenix, Shawn Green singled in the winning run in the 10th inning for Arizona.

Green's hit came two innings after Tony Clark snapped an 0-for-26 slump with a game-tying homer.

Eric Byrnes led off the 10th with a double down the left-field line off Scott Cassidy (3-1). Left-hander Alan Embree relieved and retired Chad Tracy on a line drive to first. That brought up Luis Gonzalez, who bounced to shortstop, with Byrnes holding at second. The Padres intentionally walked Clark, a switch-hitter, to get to the left-handed Green. Green singled past second baseman Josh Barfield to score Byrnes.

Clark, who came into the game hitting .140, tied the score 5-5 with a solo homer off reliever Scott Linebrink in the eighth inning.

Arizona handed the NL West leaders their second defeat in 16 games and snapped the Padres' franchise-record eight-game road win streak.

Jose Valverde (1-1) earned the victory with a scoreless 10th inning.

American League

Freddy Garcia won his sixth straight decision, leading the Chicago White Sox to a 7-3 victory over the Minnesota Twins on Monday.

Scott Podsednik, Joe Crede and Chris Widger homered to help Chicago win despite resting three regulars. The White Sox lead US Major League Baseball with a 25-12 record.

Unlike Sunday night's win, in which they gave up seven runs in the first inning and later pulled a triple play to rally past the Twins, the White Sox never trailed this time.

Rangers 4, Yankees 2

At New York, Kevin Millwood pitched seven crisp innings and Mark Teixeira hit a tiebreaking single in the eighth. Brad Wilkerson homered to begin the comeback from a two-run deficit, and Texas snapped an eight-game losing streak against the Yankees that dated to last season.

Michael Young and Hank Blalock each drove in a run for the Rangers, who had played only 5.5 innings since last Wednesday because they were rained out twice in Boston over the weekend.

Mike Mussina delivered another fine outing for the Yankees, who have lost consecutive games and managed only three runs in 23 innings. Without injured sluggers Gary Sheffield and Hideki Matsui, New York has scored 12 runs in the last five games.

Red Sox 11, Orioles 1

At Baltimore, Josh Beckett allowed two hits in seven innings, Wily Mo Pena homered and had four RBIs as the Red Sox beat the Orioles for the 12th straight time.

Jason Varitek homered and scored a career-high four runs for the Red Sox, whose 12-game run against Baltimore is its longest since the Orioles moved from St. Louis in 1954. This season, Boston has outscored Baltimore 56-20 in winning seven straight.

Boston has also won seven in a row at Camden Yards, and is 45-18 in Baltimore since the start of the 1999 season.

Celebrating his 26th birthday, Beckett (5-1) faced only one batter over the minimum, allowing a first-inning homer to Miguel Tejada and a sixth-inning single to Javy Lopez, who was erased by a double play.
This story has been viewed 1481 times.